The present invention relates to a nicotine-enhanced smoking device such as a combustible cigarette. The invention also relates to a combustible cigarette enhanced with a nicotine solution which efficiently delivers increased nicotine to the smoker. The invention further relates to a nicotine-enhanced combustible cigarette which delivers increased nicotine to the user without substantially increasing the amount of tar or other combustion products.
Tobacco has been used for hundred of years by many cultures throughout the world. Presently, the most popular method is smoking in the form of a cigarette. However, smoking cigarettes is associated with inherent health hazards. Cigarettes low in both tar and nicotine are the result of recent efforts to provide a safer cigarette.
Medical research has established that nicotine is the active ingredient in tobacco. Small doses of nicotine provide the user with certain pleasurable effects resulting in the desire for additional doses. However, recent medical research published by Russell et al, "Nasal Nicotine Solution, A Potential Aid To Giving Up Smoking?", British Medical Journal, Volume 286 p. 683 (Feb. 26, 1983), indicates that the nicotine itself is not a carcinogen. There is also evidence that nicotine is not responsible for the high rate of premature death among cigarette smokers, for example, see Wald, N. J. et al., Serum Nicotine Levels in Pipe Smokers; Evidence Against Nicotine As Cause of Coronary Heart Disease, The Lancet, Oct. 10, 1981, p. 775. However, one who uses tobacco in the form of conventional cigarettes for the pleasurable effects of nicotine must also risk the dangers of coronary heart disease and cancer that may arise from other components of the smoke which may not contribute to the pleasurable effects that nicotine may produce.
Medical research also indicates that there is no correlation between the blood nicotine levels of smokers and the nicotine yields of their cigarettes. Thus, many smokers who switch to low nicotine brands for health reasons usually end up smoking more cigarettes to maintain the same blood nicotine levels. Russell, Nicotine Intake and its Regulation, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Volume 24, p. 253 (December 1979). Russell also points out that smokers who cannot stop smoking because they are dependent on nicotine are not likely to be able to reduce their nicotine intake by switching to cigarettes which deliver hardly any nicotine. A need therefore exists for a cigarette with a higher nicotine to tar ratio. Such a cigarette would satisfy the desire for nicotine in an individual unable to quit smoking, while reducing potential health risks associated with the inhalation of tar or other smoke components which are not pleasure-enhancing.
Previous attempts to increase the nicotine delivered by a cigarette do not provide for an efficient release of nicotine from the cigarette. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,823 to Bavley et al. discloses the incorporation of a nicotine-cation exchange resin in a cigarette filter. Example 1 in column 9, reveals that the addition of 6.6 milligrams of nicotine (33% times mg. of resin) results in the release of 0.15 milligrams nicotine, or 2.2% of the nicotine added. Similarly, in Example 2, the nicotine release efficiency is 2.1%. Incorporating the nicotinecation exchange resin into the tobacco instead of the filter as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,436, to Bavley, et al., improves the nicotine release efficiency (2.9% in Example 5 to 9.0% in Example 7), but results in the introduction of ion exchange resin combustion products into the smoke.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,630 to Inskeep discloses the addition of carbon black having nicotine adsorbed on its surface to cigarettes. Incorporating the carbon black-adsorbed nicotine into the filter portion of the cigarette results in a nicotine release efficiency ranging from 1.7% in Example 3 to 5.6% in Example 2. Adding the carbon black-adsorbed nicotine to the tobacco portion of the cigarette results in an efficiency of 12.4%, but again, carbon black and nicotine combustion products are introduced into the smoke.
These patents also disclose that it is not feasible to add nicotine per se to tobacco products because of the volatility and chemical instability of nicotine.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a nicotine-enhanced smoking device with a high nicotine release efficiency. It is a further object of this invention to provide a nicotine-enhanced smoking device with an improved nicotine to tar ratio. These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following summary and description of the preferred embodiments.